Pavlovian george windholz (1931–2002): An exemplar of scholarly “observation and observation” and a critical contributor to psychology,and hence to behavioral neuroscience

Although most members of the Pavlovian Society properly focus their efforts on empirical research, the scholarly, critical conceptual contributions of some individuals are also relevant to progress in psychology and behavioral neuroscience. This paper discusses the contributions of the late George Windholz (often in collaboration with Peter Lamal) as: (a) a historian of Pavlov’s life, and work; (b) an analyst of priority issues in psychology as a science; (c) a refuter of myths perpetrated by psychology texts. These contributions provide an example of the scholarly form of the motto “observation and observation,” where the data used to test hypotheses comprise original documents (often in languages other than English) examined by the historian’s critical eye.     

The role of faith in intuition, need for cognition and method of attitude formation in implicit–explicit brand attitude relationship strength

We tested the hypothesis that Faith in Intuition (FI) would moderate implicit–explicit attitude relationship strength for attitudes formed via associative processes, but not propositional processes. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that FI moderated I–E relationship strength for attitudes formed via evaluative conditioning. High FI people had stronger I–E correlations. Experiment 2 showed that FI did not moderate I–E relationship strength for attitudes formed via propositional reasoning. Those low in Need for Cognition (NC), however, showed stronger I–E correlations than those high in NC. The importance of considering trait variables in combination with the method of attitude formation is discussed.     

Re-emergence of extinguished auditory-cued conditioned fear following a sub-conditioning procedure: effects of hippocampal and prefrontal tetanic stimulations

Post-extinction exposure of rats to a sub-conditioning procedure can evoke conditioned fear, which may correspond to fear return and/or fear learning potentiation. The aim of the present study was to clarify this issue and examine the effects of tetanic stimulation of the hippocampus (HPC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), two brain regions implicated in post-extinction modulation of conditioned fear. Rats were initially submitted to five tone-shock pairings with either a 0.7-mA or 0.1-mA shock. Tone-evoked freezing was observed only with the higher shock intensity, indicating that the 0.1-mA shock corresponded to a sub-conditioning procedure. All conditioned rats underwent fear extinction with 20 tone-alone trials. When retrained with the sub-conditioning procedure, they displayed again tone-evoked freezing, except when the initial tone was unpaired or a new tone was paired with the 0.1-mA shock, demonstrating fear return rather than fear learning potentiation. We also found that HPC and mPFC tetanic stimulations, applied 24h after the sub-conditioning procedure, similarly reduced this fear return. However, mPFC inactivation abolished temporary HPC tetanus effect, whereas HPC inactivation did not interfere with mPFC tetanus effect. These data confirm our previous findings and reveal the nature of HPC-mPFC interactions in post-extinction modulation of conditioned fear.     

Towards mouse models of perseveration: a heritable component in extinction of operant behavior in fourteen standard and recombinant inbred mouse lines

Extinction of instrumental responses is an essential skill for adaptive behavior such as foraging. So far, only few studies have focused on extinction following appetitive conditioning in mice. We studied extinction of appetitive operant lever-press behavior in six standard inbred mouse strains (A/J, C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, DBA/2J, BALB/cByJ and NOD/Ltj) and eight recombinant inbred mouse lines. From the response rates at the end of operant and extinction training we computed an extinction index, with higher values indicating better capability to omit behavioral responding in absence of reward. This index varied highly across the mouse lines tested, and the variability was partially due to a significant heritable component of 12.6%.To further characterize the relationship between operant learning and extinction, we calculated the slope of the time course of extinction across sessions. While many strains showed a considerable capacity to omit responding when lever pressing was no longer rewarded, we found a few lines showing an abnormally high perseveration in lever press behavior, showing no decay in response scores over extinction sessions.No correlation was found between operant and extinction response scores, suggesting that appetitive operant learning and extinction learning are dissociable, a finding in line with previous studies indicating that these forms of learning are dependent on different brain areas. These data shed light on the heritable basis of extinction learning and may help develop animal models of addictive habits and other perseverative disorders, such as compulsive food seeking and eating.     

Examining the sex- and circadian dependency of a learning phenotype in mice with glycine transporter 1 deletion in two Pavlovian conditioning paradigms

Behavioural characterisation of transgenic mice has been instrumental in search of therapeutic targets for the modulation of cognitive function. However, little effort has been devoted to phenotypic characterisation across environmental conditions and genomic differences such as sex and strain, which is essential to translational research. The present study is an effort in this direction. It scrutinised the stability and robustness of the phenotype of enhanced Pavlovian conditioning reported in mice with forebrain neuronal deletion of glycine transporter 1 by evaluating the possible presence of sex and circadian dependency, and its consistency across aversive and appetitive conditioning paradigms. The Pavlovian phenotype was essentially unaffected by the time of testing between the two circadian phases, but it was modified by sex in both conditioning paradigms. We observed that the effect size of the phenotype was strongest in female mice tested during the dark phase in the aversive paradigm. Critically, the presence of the phenotype in female mutants was accompanied by an increase in resistance to extinction. Similarly, enhanced conditioned responding once again emerged solely in female mutants in the appetitive conditioning experiment, which was again associated with an increased resistance to extinction across days, but male mutants exhibited an opposite trend towards facilitation of extinction. The present study has thus added hitherto unknown qualifications and specifications of a previously reported memory enhancing phenotype in this mouse line by identifying the determinants of the magnitude and direction of the expressed phenotype. This in-depth comparative approach is of value to the interpretation of behavioural findings in general.     

Predicting Election Outcomes from Positive and Negative Trait Assessments of Candidate Images

Conventional wisdom, and a growing body of behavioral research, suggests that the nonverbal image of a candidate influences voter decision making. We presented subjects with images of political candidates and asked them to make four trait judgments based solely on viewing the photographs. Subjects were asked which of the two faces exhibited more competence, attractiveness, deceitfulness, and threat, which are arguably four of the most salient attributes that can be conveyed by faces. When we compared our subjects' choices to the actual election outcomes, we found that the candidates chosen as more likely to physically threaten the subjects actually lost 65% of the real elections. As expected, our findings support the conclusions of Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, and Hall (2005 ) by showing a positive correlation between the competence judgments and the real election outcomes. Surprisingly, attractiveness was correlated with losing elections, with the effect being driven by faces of candidates who looked politically incompetent yet personally attractive. Our findings have implications for future research on negative political communication, as they suggest that both threatening first impressions and fleeting impressions of attractiveness can harm a candidate's electoral chances.     

长期双酚A暴露对成年小鼠恐惧记忆的影响

双酚A (bisphenol, BPA)是一种广泛应用于塑料制品的环境内分泌干扰物, 具有弱雌激素和抗雄激素活性, 与雌激素受体有一定的亲和力。本实验探讨长期BPA暴露对成年小鼠恐惧记忆的影响及其神经机制。将9周龄雄性小鼠暴露于BPA (0.4、4、40 mg/kg/d) 90 d, 建立小鼠亚慢性BPA暴露模型后, 进行场景性条件恐惧训练, 然后分别在电击后1 hr及24 hr检测小鼠的僵立时间, 同时在电击前、电击后1 hr及24 hr检测海马相关蛋白表达变化。结果表明, BPA (4、40 mg/kg/d)暴露延长小鼠场景性条件恐惧训练后1 hr及24 hr的僵立时间。Western blot蛋白检测结果显示, 行为训练前, BPA降低了小鼠NMDA受体NR1亚基表达水平, 上调组蛋白去乙酰化酶2表达。行为训练后1 hr及24 hr, BPA促进海马NMDA受体亚基NR1和组蛋白H3乙酰化表达, 抑制组蛋白去乙酰化酶2表达, 同时促进ERK1/2磷酸化水平。以上结果表明, 长期BPA暴露提高成年小鼠恐惧记忆获得的同时延长恐惧记忆的保持; 该作用可能通过激活海马的ERK1/2通路而改变核内组蛋白乙酰化和NMDA受体水平进行。     

Pointing with the eyes: the role of gaze in communicating danger

Facial expression and direction of gaze are two important sources of social information, and what message each conveys may ultimately depend on how the respective information interacts in the eye of the perceiver. Direct gaze signals an interaction with the observer but averted gaze amounts to "pointing with the eyes", and in combination with a fearful facial expression may signal the presence of environmental danger. We used fMRI to examine how gaze direction influences brain processing of facial expression of fear. The combination of fearful faces and averted gazes activated areas related to gaze shifting (STS, IPS) and fear-processing (amygdala, hypothalamus, pallidum). Additional modulation of activation was observed in motion detection areas, in premotor areas and in the somatosensory cortex, bilaterally. Our results indicate that the direction of gaze prompts a process whereby the brain combines the meaning of the facial expression with the information provided by gaze direction, and in the process computes the behavioral implications for the observer.